This invention relates to hand-held tools for trimming the edges of wallpaper during attachment of the wallpaper to a wall.
In the hanging of wallpaper, that is, attaching strips of wallpaper to a wall, it is usually desirable to terminate the wallpaper strips precisely where the wall to which the strips are attached joins an adjacent structural member such as another wall, ceiling molding, floor baseboard or the like, so that there is no gap showing on the papered wall between the ends of the wallpaper strips and the aforementioned joint, or overlap of wallpaper onto the adjacent structural member, which would otherwise produce a disorderly and sloppy appearance. Ordinarily, this is accomplished by cutting the wallpaper strips to a length slightly greater than the distance they are to cover, pasting the strips to the wall and trimming their ends along a line produced by the joint between the papered wall and the adjacent structural member. Wallpaper is hung this way because the respective borders along which two opposing ends of a strip of wallpaper are to terminate typically are not spaced apart a consistent distance or precisely parallel to one another, and it is easy to make a slight, but significant, error in the length of the paper when measuring over a relatively great distance, such as about eight feet. Also, in many cases it is necessary to match the pattern on one strip of wallpaper with the pattern on an adjacent strip, and applying a strip of wallpaper which is slightly longer than necessary permits adjusting its position as it is attached thereby facilitating the proper matching of the patterns.
The aforedescribed trimming aspect of hanging wallpaper is a particularly difficult, laborious and time consuming task which sometimes results in unsightly errors and increases the cost of having wallpaper hung professionally. Consequently, numerous tools have been designed in an attempt to alleviate the difficulties encountered in trimming wallpaper edges. For example, Stanley U.S. Pat. No. 2,473,551 discloses a wallpaper trimmer having an elongate handle with a razor blade holder attached to one end. However, the Stanley trimmer provides no means for ensuring that the wallpaper is cut at precisely the right point. Scholl U.S. Pat. No. 3,724,010 also shows a hand-held wallpaper-trimming tool having a blade holder, a smoothing blade for guiding the wallpaper into place and a pair of guides disposed along respective edges of the smoothing blade to ensure that the cutting edge of the blade attacks the wallpaper at an angle to the wall on which it is placed, thereby preventing the production of a gap along the papered wall or overlap on the adjacent structural member due to the thickness of the cutting blade. While this design would seem to provide some advantages in trimming wallpaper, its shape would render cumbersome the positioning of the tool against a structural member adjacent the wall being papered and, due to the width of the guides relative to the length of the tool handle, substantial leverage is produced which could cause tipping of the tool during use, resulting in inaccurate cutting.
Another relevant wallpaper trimmer, disclosed in Voight U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,486, utilizes a pair of guide plates joined together at right angles to fit into the corner of a pair of perpendicular walls and a cutting blade which protrudes through the joint of the two guides to cut at a 45.degree. angle from both walls. Although this device would facilitate trimming wallpaper at the joint between two perpendicular walls, it would be considerably less useful where the adjoining wall is not perpendicular or the wallpaper is to be trimmed along an adjacent structural member having a nonlinearly shaped edge, for example, rounded molding. In addition, no means is provided for gradually guiding the wallpaper from a wide curve into a sharp corner at the joint where it is to be trimmed. Ring U.S. Pat. No. 799,675 also shows a wallpaper cutting tool having a guide for positioning a cutting blade relative to a flat surface but, due to the obtuse angle between the blade and the guide, and to blade fastening hardware which protrudes outwardly from the plane of the blade, the tool would not be suitable for trimming wallpaper at many types of joints between a wall and an adjacent structural member, particularly where a perpendicular corner exists.
In the aforementioned co-pending patent application Ser. No. 704,500 a wallpaper trimmer device has been described and claimed which positions a cutting blade precisely at the joint between the wall being papered and the adjacent structural member, and at an angle to the surface of the wall being papered. The tool is also adapted to cut accurately and precisely at a variety of joints such as perpendicular walls, rounded molding adjoining a wall, or baseboard adjoining a wall, and to smoothly guide the wallpaper gradually into the cutting joint to minimize any damage due to tearing or creasing. Although the device described in that application greatly facilitates the trimming of wallpaper as it is hung, and can be used for either right-handed or left-handed operation, it is designed to accommodate one hand better than the other. Also, while the angle of attack of the cutting blade (that is, the angle of the blade to the wall) may be precisely fixed at its optimum position for most circumstances, no adjustability thereof is provided for. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved trimming device which accommodates either right-handed or left-handed operation equally well and provides for adjustment of the angle of attack of the blade.